Sea Search Targets Delta's Main Engine

CAPE CANAVERAL — A team of NASA investigators met Thursday for the first time in an effort to learn why a Delta rocket carrying a weather satellite failed shortly after launch last weekend.

While the eight-member board was briefed in private by people involved in the Saturday liftoff, salvage crews aboard the NASA ship Freedom Star reported finding the probable location of the rocket's main engine.

According to the space agency, the engine is likely one of three sonar contacts made in 440 feet of water 30 miles east of Cocoa Beach.

Members of the Delta launch team presented the board with data that indicate an electrical short in the rocket's first stage caused the engine to shut down prematurely, space agency officials said.

Engineers hope that electrical control boxes in the engine compartment will help them pinpoint the cause of the short.

After the engine stopped 71 seconds into flight, a range safety officer sent a signal to destroy the three-stage rocket as it tumbled out of control 15 miles over the Atlantic. A $57.5 million GOES-7 weather satellite was lost in the accident.

The four-man submarine Johnson-Sea-Link I and its support ship Edwin Link are scheduled to arrive at the site early today and examine the wreckage.

If the engine is found, the sub will attach a flotation bag and push it to the surface.